Manolo the Shoeblogger writes in The Paradox of Not Caring: “claiming to not care about the clothes, to not be concerned about what one wears, it the paradox, for the clothes worn by one who claims not to care make as much the statement as those worn by one who dresses with the purpose.” He’s… Continue reading Anti-fashion
Author: esr
Riots in France declared over
The Brussels Journal reports that the French government has officially declared the banlieu riots over. The article continues: Police figures are at exactly 98 cars torched on Wednesday night. This, the police say, is a normal average. Consequently the 20th consecutive night of violence was declared the last one. Yes, you read that correctly. 98… Continue reading Riots in France declared over
2wenty minutes of goo
Went to see the latest Harry Potter flick last night and got — no, I won’t say “assaulted”, I’ll say “oozed on” by the infomercials Regal Cinemas started running earlier this year, some sludge called “The 2wenty” that tries to be trendy and hip and cool and attractive and fails miserably on all four counts.… Continue reading 2wenty minutes of goo
The Ice Harvest
In 1997 I was delighted by Grosse Point Blank, John Cusack’s masterpiece about a hitman who finds himself (in both senses of the phrase) at his high-school reunion. I loved that movie for its action, its dark comedy, and a script that never stopped being wickedly intelligent for even a second. I’ve been waiting nearly… Continue reading The Ice Harvest
LISP — The Language That Will Not Die
I’ve spent large parts of the last week editing maps for a game system I’m working on. I’ve been using the GIMP graphics editor, and I’m pretty impressed with it. I haven’t found anything I can’t easily make it do — except, oddly enough, draw straight lines between defined endpoints. (I suspect there’s actually a… Continue reading LISP — The Language That Will Not Die
“How To Become A Hacker” updated.
I’ve added a pointer to Peter Norvig’s excellent essay “Teach Yourself Programming In Ten Years”. The HOWTO itself is here.
The Halloween Documents are available again
For all those who have been asking, the Halloween Documents are available on my website.
Is “Open Source Media” an abuse of the term?
A correspondent wrote me to object to the fact that that-which-was-Pajamas-Media has launched as “Open Source Media”.
Why “Commons” language gives me hives
A bit of blogging for the record here. Doc Searls wrote: “The Commons” and “the public domain” might be legitimate concepts with deep and relevant histories, but they’re too arcane to most of us. Eric Raymond has told me more than once that the Commons Thing kinda rubs him the wrong way. […] (Maybe he’ll… Continue reading Why “Commons” language gives me hives
Peak Oil — A Wish-Fulfillment Fantasy for Secular Idiots
Secularists and leftists enjoy sneering at conservative Christians who believe in the Rapture and other flavors of millenarianism. Reasonably so: it takes either a drooling idiot or somebody who has deliberately shut off most of his brain, reducing himself to an idiotically low level of critical thinking, to believe such things. The draw, of couse,… Continue reading Peak Oil — A Wish-Fulfillment Fantasy for Secular Idiots
Paris is Burning
As I predicted two years ago, in Demographics and the Dustbin of History, Paris is burning. The banlieu riots are so out of control that the French have declared a national state of emergency.
Suicidalism
The most important weapons of al-Qaeda and the rest of the Islamist terror network are the suicide bomber and the suicide thinker. The suicide bomber is typically a Muslim fanatic whose mission it is to spread terror; the suicide thinker is typically a Western academic or journalist or politician whose mission it is to destroy… Continue reading Suicidalism
Upgrade in progress
My WordPress instance was just upgraded from 1.2 to 1.5. The visual presentation may have a glitch or two until I edit the template. UPDATE: Aaargh. It looks like the special magic in the templates has been changed enough that I will have to rebuild my look and feel from scratch. This may take a… Continue reading Upgrade in progress
Eric writes about the shoes
Aa a finger exercise in writing, I decided to submit a piece to Manolo’s Essay Contest. The constraints — low word count, a subject that really doesn’t interest me much — appealed to me. I figured if I could produce something interesting under those circumstances, it would be an accomplishment. Here it is. You be… Continue reading Eric writes about the shoes
Microsoft’s Worst Nightmare?
A commenter writes, in reference to my letter to the Microsoft recruiter, BTW, I think abrogating to yourself the status of MS’s worst nightmare might be seen as presumptious, considering that FLOSS depends on a big community, and a lot of what FLOSS is about precedes your 97 work, but far be it from me… Continue reading Microsoft’s Worst Nightmare?
Microsoft tries to recruit me
The following is, verbatim, a letter I received a few minutes ago from a Microsoft recruiter.
Impotent radicals
A minor SF writer of radical Marxist political convictions recently uttered a rather incoherent rant in which, among other things, she accused me of “simple-minded right-wing” views. I’m not going to name her because I don’t dislike the woman enough to want to add to her troubles. But I’ve heard this song before from other… Continue reading Impotent radicals
The first good thing to come of Hurricane Katrina
Oh, my stars and garters. A pro-firearms story in the New York Times? Yes, children, it has actually happened: Police and Owners Begin to Challenge Looters (link via InstaPundit). Property owners with guns maintaining civil order in their neighborhood are cited approvingly. There’s even a picture of a handsome armed couple “on the lookout for… Continue reading The first good thing to come of Hurricane Katrina
Getting Orwell Wrong
The interpretation of George Orwell could be a paradigm for how dead literary figures get knocked from pillar to post by the winds of political interpretation. During his lifetime, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm went from darling of the left to exile for having been willing to write the truth about Communist totalitarianism… Continue reading Getting Orwell Wrong
Pretty People Behaving Stupidly
I’ve been learning about the romance genre recently. I have no intrinsic interest in it at all, but I have an intelligent friend who plows through romances the way I read SF, and we’ve been discussing the conventions and structural features of the genre. Along the way I’ve learned that romance fans use an acronym… Continue reading Pretty People Behaving Stupidly